The messaging feature is a core capability of ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ. It is enabled by default when you activate ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ. This topic describes the billing model and provides examples for the messaging feature of ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ Standard Edition instances.
Billing formulas
Standard Edition instances are billed based on message throughput and resource usage. The metering method is pay-as-you-go, which is ideal for scenarios with low message volumes or highly variable traffic, helping you avoid over-provisioning resources.
The formula for messaging fees on Standard Edition instances is as follows:
API call fees
Billable Items
API call fees = (Number of messages received + Number of messages delivered) × Unit price of API calls
Billing is based on the number of messages sent to and received from the server. Unit prices vary by monthly message throughput tier and differ across regions.
Rules for calculating message throughput:
Each normal message received by the server counts as one message received. Each normal message delivered by the server counts as one message delivered, regardless of whether consumption succeeds.
For featured messages, multiply the count by 5. For example, if the server receives one transactional message and delivers it twice to a consumer, the message throughput is (1 × 5) + (2 × 5) = 15.
The maximum message body size is 4 MB. Billing uses 4 KB as the unit. For example, delivering a 16 KB message counts as 16 ÷ 4 = 4 deliveries.
When consuming messages via HTTP, the client actively invokes consumption methods. Both short polling and long polling are supported, and the consumer application controls the polling frequency.
Long polling: If a topic has no messages, the subscription request remains suspended on the server until a message arrives or the waiting time expires (up to 30 seconds). If the server returns messages, calculate deliveries using the rules above (message count × featured message multiplier × message size multiplier). If the server returns no messages, the request still counts as one delivery.
Short polling: If a topic has no messages, the server immediately returns an empty response. The client then sends repeated subscription requests. Each request counts as one delivery.
If no messages are generated in a topic and short polling is used, many invalid subscription requests may be generated—and you are charged for each. To reduce invalid requests and lower costs, use long polling and increase the long polling wait time. For more information, see Operation for consuming messages.
ApsaraMQ for RocketMQ supports four message types: normal messages, scheduled and delayed messages, transactional messages, and ordered messages. Only normal messages are basic messages; the others are advanced feature messages. For more information, see Message types.
Unit prices
Tiered pricing
NoteEach Alibaba Cloud account receives a free quota of 20 million API calls per month for messaging. The tiered prices below apply only to usage exceeding this free quota.
API call fees
Billing tier
Message throughput (100 million calls/month)
Unit price by region (USD/million calls)
UAE (Dubai), Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Japan (Tokyo), UK (London), Germany (Frankfurt), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley)
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila)
Internet, China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Chengdu), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot)
SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region)
First tier
0 to 10
0.45
0.42
0.31
0.54
Second tier
10 to 50
0.41
0.38
0.28
0.492
Third tier
50 to 100
0.34
0.31
0.23
0.408
Fourth tier
100 to 500
0.3
0.27
0.20
0.36
Fifth tier
> 500
0.27
0.25
0.19
0.324
Rules for tiered pricing
Message throughput accumulates monthly per Alibaba Cloud account.
NoteIf an Alibaba Cloud account authorizes another account using a Resource Access Management (RAM) role, the authorizing account is billed. If an Alibaba Cloud account authorizes RAM users under its own name, the Alibaba Cloud account is billed.
Billing examples
Example for calculating message throughput
A producer sends 7 million normal messages daily to the server. Accounting for multiple consumer groups subscribing to the same topic and possible re-deliveries due to consumption failures, assume 8 million message deliveries. Each message is 40 KB.
The producer also sends 3 million featured messages daily. Message deliveries total 3 million. Each message is 2 KB.
Daily message throughput = (Normal messages received + Normal messages delivered) × Message size multiplier + (Featured messages received + Featured messages delivered) × 5 × Message size multiplier = (7 million + 8 million) × ⌈40 ÷ 4⌉ + (3 million + 3 million) × 5 × ⌈2 ÷ 4⌉ = 180 million.
Note⌈ ⌉ indicates rounding up to the nearest integer.
Example for calculating API call fees
Assume your instance is located in China (Shanghai) and processes 500 million messages daily. The accumulated message throughput and corresponding tiered unit prices are as follows:
Date of the month
1st of the month
2nd of the month
3rd of the month
4th of the month
...
11th of the month
...
Daily message throughput
500 million
500 million
500 million
500 million
...
500 million
...
Accumulated message throughput (monthly)
500 million
1 billion
1.5 billion
2 billion
...
5.5 billion
...
Unit price (USD/million calls)
0.31 (first tier)
0.31 (first tier)
0.28 (second tier)
0.28 (second tier)
...
0.23 (third tier)
...
Daily fees (USD)
155
155
140
140
...
115
...
Topic occupancy fees
Billing Item Description
Topic occupancy fees = Unit price × Number of topics × Number of days
Each topic incurs a daily occupancy fee. Unit prices depend on the topic’s daily message throughput tier.
You are charged for every topic you create—even if it sends or receives no messages. To avoid unnecessary costs, delete unused topics promptly.
Unit prices
Tiered pricing
Topic occupancy fees
Billing tier
Message throughput (10,000 calls/topic-day)
Unit Price by Region (USD/unit/day)
China (Hong Kong), Singapore, Japan (Tokyo), UAE (Dubai), US (Virginia), US (Silicon Valley), Germany (Frankfurt), UK (London)
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Philippines (Manila)
Internet, China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Shenzhen), China (Chengdu), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot)
SAU (Riyadh – Partner Region) – Partner Operations
First tier
0 to 100
0.45
0.42
0.31
0.54
Second tier
100 to 500
0.34
0.31
0.23
0.408
Third tier
500 to 1,000
0.11
0.11
0.08
0.132
Fourth tier
> 1,000
0
0
0
0
Rules for tiered pricing
Message throughput accumulates daily per topic.
NoteIf an Alibaba Cloud account authorizes another account using a Resource Access Management (RAM) role, the authorizing account is billed. If an Alibaba Cloud account authorizes RAM users under its own name, the Alibaba Cloud account is billed.
Billing examples
Assume your instance is located in China (Shanghai) and you have created several topics.
Each topic incurs a daily fee. The daily topic occupancy fee equals the sum of the fees for all topics active that day.
Date of the month | 1st of the month | 2nd of the month | 3rd of the month | ... |
Topic_1 | Daily message throughput: 100,000. Falls into the first billing tier. Topic occupancy fees: 0.31 USD. | Daily message throughput: 1.2 million. Falls into the second billing tier. Topic occupancy fees: 0.23 USD. | Daily message throughput: 300,000. Falls into the first billing tier. Topic occupancy fees: 0.31 USD. | ... |
Topic_2 | Daily message throughput: 5.5 million. Falls into the third billing tier. Topic occupancy fees: 0.08 USD. | Daily message throughput: 800,000. Falls into the first billing tier. Topic occupancy fees: 0.31 USD. | Daily message throughput: 100,000. Falls into the first billing tier. Topic occupancy fees: 0.31 USD. | ... |
... | ... | ... | ... | ... |
Topic_n | ... | ... | ... | ... |